“I— Why, I don’t know,” Elsie said, laughing.
Bertha said suddenly, “you’d call up the people you’d rented it from, wouldn’t you?”
“I guess I would.”
Bertha said with sudden decision, “Go back in there. Tell him that you understood from a friend there was another vacancy. Ask him if he’s certain you’ve seen them all. Try and find out if they’ve rented an apartment in the last two or three days. Put on the high-and-mighty act for him. He’ll fall for that. Otherwise you won’t get to first base.”
“Leave it to me,” Elsie said. “I have him eating out of my hand already. Do you want to wait here?”
“Yes.”
Elsie was back with the information in five minutes. “Apartment 12B was vacant until yesterday. A Mrs. Stevens took it then.”
Bertha grinned. “Nice chap, that clerk. It’s probably his master mind that originated the idea. All right, Elsie, go on back to the office.”
Bertha entered a telephone booth, called the Locklear Apartments, said, “A Mrs. Stevens left word that I was to call her in apartment 12B. Know anything about it?”
“Just a moment.”